Big Plans is a story of a boy who plots while sitting in the corner of a classroom. He has Big Plans, and is going to tell everyone in the world about these Big Plans with the help of one mynah bird and one lucky skunk.

I first read this a few months ago right after reading Madam President. I hadn’t been too impressed at that point in time, so decided I wanted to put it all out of my head for a few months and then come at it again later when I wouldn’t automatically compare it to another story book. Initially, my thoughts had been that the illustrations weren’t as great as I had been used to seeing and that the story was lacking.

However, rereading it now, with a fresh perspective on it makes me think that I was completely wrong. The story still leaves a little to be desired, but it was cute enough. The illustrations were, of course, lovely. But that is to be expected from Lane Smith. That said, however, I prefer his work in John, Paul, George and Ben and Cowboy and Octopus. An example of the illustrations in this book:

So, as you can see, they are quite lovely. But as a whole things book wasn’t everything I had been hoping it was going to be.